V. N. Reinhold organized a workshop at the 24th meeting of the Society for Glycobiology held in Long Beach, CA, in November 1997, to educate members of the community about new developments in instrumentation, sample handling and data interpretation that now facilitate the usage of mass spectrometry to address problems in glycobiology. The listed staff members made presentations, in addition to that of the organizer himself. Lively discussions followed the presentations. The session lasted two hours and was attended by 50-100 persons during most of that period.